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Tuesday, July 29, 2008

I find it funny when I read about bloggers who make matchymatchy things and then apologize for it, like it's some sort of bad thing. I made some more w i d e leg lounge pants using the Amy Butler pattern from this book. This time I used fabric from my stash instead of a vintage sheet. I love this fabric so much! I had enough to make a matching pair for my little girl. I LOVE these. so. much.

For my daughter's I used the shorts pattern Butterick B4966 (like shown here), but I added about 7" to the length to make them into pants. (Look at me messing with patterns already!)

I also like these because they are projects that I consider not only useful, but needed. (With the amount of quilting I do, quilts are no longer needed around here...we have plenty.) So I am happy to round out our wardrobes with needed sewing. Like a few others have said, hand made pajamas sure beat what you can buy at the store. I picked up some white T's for my daughter for $3.50 at The Children's Place, and after a few more pairs of bottoms sewn up for her, she will be set for fall pajamas! Woo-hoo.

And no apologies for being matchymatchy here. :)

One more thing...of all the things I thought I would never do, putting up a photo of myself on the internet in my pajamas for the whole world to see is certainly one of them! :)

Monday, July 28, 2008

Welcome to week 14 of the quilt along. Today I will show you how to finish your quilt top and then provide links that will help you finish the entire quilt.

I had given instructions a few weeks ago about the sashing, but if you haven't cut it yet, you will need:36 squares 2 1/2" from the fabric that matches the setting squares60 rectangles 2 1/2" x 12 1/2" from the background fabric

The outside borders are cut 6 1/2" wide, also from the background fabric.

If you are making the quilt according to the original pattern, you will need the sashing added to the quilt like this:There are sashing pieces between each block and then sashing posts at each corner, even around the perimeter of the quilt. When that is complete, add the outside border.

A few ideas for you if you choose to deviate from the original quilt....

You could layout all the blocks without the sashing, you would just end up with a smaller quilt.

Katherine added a smaller inner border that matches the setting blocks. You can see it here.

John is doing all 25 blocks from the previous and this quilt along into one quilt top. You can see his progress here.

Once your quilt top is complete, you will need to baste, quilt, and bind the quilt.

A big THANK YOU to all of you who participated in the quilt along this time around. It's been great to see your blocks come together. I look forward to seeing the quilts come together and become finished objects.

Saturday, July 26, 2008

Another one for the finished list! This started out as a quick and easy project and it turned out to be a very special quilt.These two prints are just like ones that we had growing up. I am glad to have them in a quilt to help preserve them. I would rather use them than having them sitting in a drawer or shelf for who knows how long.The backing is also a sheet (not sure that it's vintage, though) which came from my grandma's house. It was still in the package. It had a price tag of $6.99, but she had written on the label "$4.99 on sale. 6 per cent tax." My grandma was so cute and sweet. Anyway, there was no question that I was going to use this sheet on the back.After quilting it, I was certain I was going to have to go to the quilt shop to find appropriate fabric for the binding. After a bit of digging, though, my stash came through for me again. (Yes, I was disappointed. I was hoping that I had to go, you know? It's been a long time!) This is fabric that Heather gave me for my birthday. She bought it at Purl Patchwork when she went in May. I couldn't decide which would work better-the stripe or the polka dot-so I mixed the two. I hesitated to use such precious fabric, but then decided to cut it up right then and there, otherwise I would hoard it forever. And do you know what? I'm so glad I did.

I washed and dried the whole thing this morning, and I realized that I should have done the stippling a little smaller so it would be more crinkly, but it will do.

The blocks are 10" finished so the quilt measures 60" x 80".

I have a feeling that this won't be the only vintage sheet quilt I make. Those sheets go a LONG way.

Thursday, July 24, 2008

...the first produce of the year from my garden. Hurray! I cannot tell you how much I love going out to the garden and picking fresh veggies to add to my dinner.It was sooooo good. We eat stir fry over plain spaghetti noodles, add a little soy sauce to it (so it ends up like a little like lo mein). For the adults, we add a little HOT chili sauce for some extra kick. Easy and delicious!

The cucumbers are coming next. And green beans! Oh, I love my garden.

Now, for some yellow on the quilting front...

my vintage sheet quilt stippled....

the start of another plain spoken quilt....(of course I had to sneak some pink in there, too.)

and just a random shot from my sewing room.

This is my first time participating in a color week...it's fun to notice little details that otherwise would be overlooked. Thanks, Tracy.

Monday, July 21, 2008

Welcome to week 13 of the quilt along! This is the last star-we made it!! It's been fun for me to watch the quilts come together in different color schemes with out all the work of doing it myself. :)

For this week's star:cut one square 5 1/4" from the background fabriccut it in half on the diagonal, twice, to make 4 quarter square trianglescut 4 squares 4 1/2" from the background fabriccut two squares 5 1/4" one from a medium and one from a dark fabriccut each of those on the diagonal, twice, to make 4 quarter square trianglescut 2 squares 4 7/8" one from the medium and one from the dark fabriccut each square in half on the diagonal once, to make half square triangleslayout as shownthere is a great tip here for sewing the triangles to the corner squaresew togetherand square up to 12.5".

Isn't this a great block? I think it's one of my favorites. (Do I say that every week?)

Friday, July 18, 2008

After 16 months, it's finally finished. I first posted about it here.You can see the inspiration quilt here. And a larger shot here.It is for my oldest son. I finished it right after he went to bed one day this week, so I had it laying out, ready for him in the morning. (He was quite anxious for me to finish it.) When he saw it in the morning, he ran over, and got underneath and started snuggling up in it immediately. He loves it so much already. It makes me smile.The quilting was a little more challenging than usual. First, I used red thread to outline each cross. Then I stippled around each cross-which is where is got sketchy. It's hard to evenly fill in the spaces without quilting yourself into a dead end. It's not very even and it's a bit bunchy in places, but I am trying to cut myself some slack...at least there aren't any puckers, so I am happy with that.

Since I haven't been buying fabric and this is out of my normal quilting color scheme (pink) I was doubtful that I would be able to scrape up enough backing fabric. But I found this post which inspired me to dig a little deeper in my stash and come up with a solution. I'm really really happy with what I came up with. I had just enough fabric. And as weird as it seems to say this, I love the drabness of it.Here's a closer shot of the back....

For the binding I ran into the same problem...finding enough fabric in my stash that actually matches. I had a piece of solid fabric that was not quite large enough. So to add enough length, I added just 3 small sections of patterned fabric to the solid strips to make a piece of binding long enough to go all the way around. I like the bit of interest that it adds to the quilt.

It measures 54" x 72".

I improvisationally pieced (yay) the crosses, then added borders to make all the squares 9.5", so the blocks are 9" finished.

Wednesday, July 16, 2008

It's been 46 days since I bought any new fabric, and I am really trying to resist the urge. (It's hard, I tell you!) So, I thought I would pull out some fabric piles to remind me why I am not buying fabric. (It's barely working.)Each of these stacks of fabric represent a quilt that I have planned...and most of the fabric for already. See how the pile of pink fabric in the upper right hand corner towers over the rest? I love that. (There is plenty more stash where that came from and at least 5 more quilt projects planned that don't photograph well. That doesn't even count any scrap quilts!)

I joined the summer stash challenge in order to help me, but I haven't really started on one yet, because I am trying to get some WIP's finished up first.

In the mean time, I made my block for Erin for the Virtual Quilting Bee.I love the fabrics she chose. She sent the green floral. I added the yellow and the stripe.

Monday, July 14, 2008

Welcome to week 12 of the quilt along! For this week's block...cut one square 7 1/4" from the background fabriccut it in half on the diagonal twice to make quarter square trianglescut 2 squares 3 1/2" from the background fabriccut 6 squares 3 1/2" from a medium fabriccut 4 squares 3 7/8" from a dark fabriccut each of these in half on the diagonal once to make 8 half square triangleslayout as shownsew togetherand square up to 12.5".

Once more star to go, then it's assembly time.

Since we are nearly finished with this quilt along, I'm trying to decide if I should do another one or not. Would anyone still be interested? I'm not sure what it would be yet, but something other than a sampler quilt this time. I'm thinking maybe something with various sized quilt blocks-six, nine and twelve inch blocks all combined into one quilt. Or should we try something improvisational? Do you have any ideas of what you would like to see? (No guarantees here, I'm just trying to brainstorm.) I would plan to start it in the fall at the earliest. Let me know what you think.

Friday, July 11, 2008

It's D O N E!!!!I quilted each channel separately, changing the thread color to match each section of fabric. This worked out great. The back is so pretty, but it is impossible to capture it in a photo.

I used brown for the binding because 1. I had it in my stash and 2. I prefer a dark binding over light. (It was either brown or cream.)I love that it is orderly and random, all rolled into one. (kinda like me.)

If you want to read more about the making of this quilt, you can see here, here, here, here and here. I have been working on this quilt for so long that it went through 2 name changes before I finished it. I'm glad to cross this one off my list.